User Tag List

+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 9 of 9

Thread: They're going back to prison, but they didn't commit new crimes...

  1. #1

    tPF Moderator
    Points: 473,032, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 69.0%
    Achievements:
    Social50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassYour first GroupVeteranRecommendation First ClassOverdrive
    Awards:
    Master Tagger
    DGUtley's Avatar tPF Moderator
    Karma
    200763
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Northeast Ohio
    Posts
    52,918
    Points
    473,032
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    17,060
    Thanked 46,033x in 24,872 Posts
    Mentioned
    886 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Post They're going back to prison, but they didn't commit new crimes...

    They're going back to prison, but they didn't commit new crimes... A court battle over an obscure Tennessee statute freed these men from prison. Years later, they were told they must return.

    2000x.jpg

    After 10 years in prison, Michael Lemons was released in 2017 and returned to his hometown of Jackson, Tennessee. He got a job at a steel mill, reconnected with his now-adult daughter and bought his first new car. “I did better at 45 than I've ever done in my entire life,” Lemons said. But three years later, in September 2020, he had to report back to federal prison in Morgantown, West Virginia. He hadn’t broken any rules or committed another crime.

    Lemons was one of about 20 men who had been sent home from prison, only to be locked up again — all because of a court fight over whether they should be considered “armed career criminals.”

    1200x.jpg


    In his 30s, Lemons bought a hunting rifle from a neighbor, despite several burglary convictions when he was a teenager. Federal law says you can’t own a gun if you’ve ever been convicted of a felony. Authorities found the rifle while searching his home on an old warrant dating back to his time on probation in his early 20s. All of Lemons’s burglaries were committed in the course of a single year more than a decade earlier, when he was homeless. He had not been in any trouble with the law since. Still, under a 1984 federal law, he was considered an “armed career criminal.”
    People convicted of being a “felon in possession of a firearm” spend about five years in prison, on average. But the 1984 law requires an automatic 15-year sentence if someone with a record of three or more violent felonies gets caught with a gun. In the years since, the Supreme Court has struggled to define violent crime in the context of the Armed Career Criminal Act.

    McClurg.jpg


    This is the story: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2...mit-new-crimes
    Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect. -- Woody Hayes​

  2. #2
    Points: 80,681, Level: 69
    Level completed: 27%, Points required for next Level: 1,769
    Overall activity: 43.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialVeteran50000 Experience Points
    countryboy's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    28213
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Ohio, USA
    Posts
    28,643
    Points
    80,681
    Level
    69
    Thanks Given
    10,467
    Thanked 21,450x in 13,505 Posts
    Mentioned
    230 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Do you believe this is a just use of our legal system @DGUtley?
    Cutesy Time is OVER

  3. #3

    tPF Moderator
    Points: 473,032, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 69.0%
    Achievements:
    Social50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassYour first GroupVeteranRecommendation First ClassOverdrive
    Awards:
    Master Tagger
    DGUtley's Avatar tPF Moderator
    Karma
    200763
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Northeast Ohio
    Posts
    52,918
    Points
    473,032
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    17,060
    Thanked 46,033x in 24,872 Posts
    Mentioned
    886 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by countryboy View Post
    Do you believe this is a just use of our legal system @DGUtley?
    Yes. I also think that the system should look at these on an individual basis to see if 'time served' suffices.
    Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect. -- Woody Hayes​

  4. #4
    Points: 80,681, Level: 69
    Level completed: 27%, Points required for next Level: 1,769
    Overall activity: 43.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialVeteran50000 Experience Points
    countryboy's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    28213
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Ohio, USA
    Posts
    28,643
    Points
    80,681
    Level
    69
    Thanks Given
    10,467
    Thanked 21,450x in 13,505 Posts
    Mentioned
    230 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by DGUtley View Post
    Yes. I also think that the system should look at these on an individual basis to see if 'time served' suffices.
    Don't many federal statutes have mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines?
    Cutesy Time is OVER

  5. #5

    tPF Moderator
    Points: 473,032, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 69.0%
    Achievements:
    Social50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassYour first GroupVeteranRecommendation First ClassOverdrive
    Awards:
    Master Tagger
    DGUtley's Avatar tPF Moderator
    Karma
    200763
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Northeast Ohio
    Posts
    52,918
    Points
    473,032
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    17,060
    Thanked 46,033x in 24,872 Posts
    Mentioned
    886 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by countryboy View Post
    Don't many federal statutes have mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines?
    Yes, many states have mandatory minimums. The article said that TN inmates could ask for leniency.
    Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect. -- Woody Hayes​

  6. The Following User Says Thank You to DGUtley For This Useful Post:

    countryboy (03-03-2021)

  7. #6
    Points: 80,681, Level: 69
    Level completed: 27%, Points required for next Level: 1,769
    Overall activity: 43.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialVeteran50000 Experience Points
    countryboy's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    28213
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Ohio, USA
    Posts
    28,643
    Points
    80,681
    Level
    69
    Thanks Given
    10,467
    Thanked 21,450x in 13,505 Posts
    Mentioned
    230 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by DGUtley View Post
    Yes, many states have mandatory minimums. The article said that TN inmates could ask for leniency.
    I respectfully disagree with your assessment that this is a just use of our legal system, especially if the situation as described in your original post is accurate.
    Cutesy Time is OVER

  8. #7

    tPF Moderator
    Points: 473,032, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 69.0%
    Achievements:
    Social50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassYour first GroupVeteranRecommendation First ClassOverdrive
    Awards:
    Master Tagger
    DGUtley's Avatar tPF Moderator
    Karma
    200763
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Northeast Ohio
    Posts
    52,918
    Points
    473,032
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    17,060
    Thanked 46,033x in 24,872 Posts
    Mentioned
    886 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by countryboy View Post
    I respectfully disagree with your assessment that this is a just use of our legal system, especially if the situation as described in your original post is accurate.
    I respect your right to disagree and do not in any way seek to cancel your comments.
    Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect. -- Woody Hayes​

  9. The Following User Says Thank You to DGUtley For This Useful Post:

    countryboy (03-03-2021)

  10. #8
    Points: 80,681, Level: 69
    Level completed: 27%, Points required for next Level: 1,769
    Overall activity: 43.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialVeteran50000 Experience Points
    countryboy's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    28213
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Ohio, USA
    Posts
    28,643
    Points
    80,681
    Level
    69
    Thanks Given
    10,467
    Thanked 21,450x in 13,505 Posts
    Mentioned
    230 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by DGUtley View Post
    I respect your right to disagree and do not in any way seek to cancel your comments.
    Whew! Thank goodness.
    Cutesy Time is OVER

  11. The Following User Says Thank You to countryboy For This Useful Post:

    DGUtley (03-03-2021)

  12. #9
    Points: 143,721, Level: 91
    Level completed: 19%, Points required for next Level: 2,929
    Overall activity: 74.0%
    Achievements:
    Social50000 Experience PointsOverdriveVeteran
    carolina73's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    43642
    Join Date
    Sep 2019
    Posts
    57,470
    Points
    143,721
    Level
    91
    Thanks Given
    56,047
    Thanked 43,647x in 28,238 Posts
    Mentioned
    154 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    That's the problem with these mandatory sentences but the same problem exists with the personal opinions/politics of judges.

    Holding burglaries over his head when he was a kid is a misuse of justice, if the story is true. We do not know if the burglaries were breaking into cars for change or reduced for a guilty plea after holding homeowners at gun point.

    It is incredibly hard to justify a case like this when The Resident is realeasing illegals who are guilty of violent crimes and his VP was contributing to the bail of violent criminals arrested during the protests.

    If the case really is as stated then he served his time and not owning a hunting rifle in Jackson, TN would be unforgivable. His having a handgun would be more of a concern.

+ Reply to Thread

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts